1

Sustainable Development and Utilization of Crop Residues
in Udonthani Province, Northeast Thailand.
University of Tsukuba

Chaiubon CHOMYONG

University of Tsukuba

Yoshiro HIGANO

1. Introduction
Biomass means organic substance or material capably converts to energy. Biomass energy
can be modernized worldwide, such as produced and used much move efficiently and costcompetitively, generally in the more convenient forms of gases, liquids or electricity. Biomass istaking into account of agri-residues wood waste, animal manure, waste from agro-productprocessing factory and municipal solid waste. Thailand is the important agricultural countries.
There is abundance of biomass production from crop residues. Significant by-products are ricestraw, bagasse, palm fiber and fruit brunches. Udonthani province is city in Northeast Thailand.
The main crop products are sugarcane, rice straw, cassava and corn. Sugarcane is used for thepurpose of produce sugar consumption. In recent years, there has been an increasing trend
towards more efficient utilization of agri-residues, including sugarcane residues. On the otherhand, few studies have been conducted on the utilization of agricultural waste, waste from farmand domestic. Most of the proposed solutions have not been implemented because they did notmeet the basic elements of sustainability; social progression, environmental protection andeconomic development, technical and technological improvements. Especially, most of local
people in city are poor, the lack of heavy machine, modernized technologies and researchpersonnel in region. Total of sugarcane residues that is left after harvest, commonly burned by
local farmer and also frequently burn sugarcane before harvesting. Sugarcane burning is negativeimpact on air quality, emission of carbon dioxide (CO2). In this study, we propose the utilizationof crop residues and organic waste from household, focus on environmental, natural resources,
sustainability and local development, and we will provide the regional policy to promote theutilization of waste and encourage local farmer is accepted to reduce sugarcane residues burning.
Moreover we suggest a technology to utilize crop residues and organic waste from household forsustainable development.

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1. 1 Effect on sugarcane burning and utilization of cane residues
The main crop agricultural products of Udonthani province are sugarcane 7,843,496 tons,
rice straw 992,710 tons, cassava 547,522 tons and corn 102,547 tons in 2004. Udonthani province
have an agricultural tradition for a long time but we still have a few studies have been conductedon the utilization of agricultural. Most of organic waste has not been implemented. The farmer
growing crops under conditions of natural rain falls. Sugarcane has some of the mostadvantageous properties of biomass. A part from being used to produce sugar and molasses,
sugarcane grows faster and products more biomass than most energy crops. There are two typesof residual fuels available at cane sugar processing factories, bagasse and cane trash. Baggasse is
the cane residue which is left over after the extraction of sugar. Cane trash is the leaves and topsof the cane plant, which are usually burnt before harvesting. Total of cane residues in farm,commonly burned by local farmer. There are agricultural benefits of burning and leaving canetrash in the field after harvesting. The project aims to make a synthesized air pollutionmanagement policy by computer simulation that includes introduction of biomass energy recycle
plant to control air and decreasing crop residues burning by local farmer in farm. We purpose autilization of biomass resources, local development by sustainable and reduction ofenvironmental burdens in city and will be cover whole region.

1.2 High productivity of methane fermentation from crop-residues and household waste
Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas, next to carbon dioxide. Methane
emission sources include rice paddy cultivation, livestock fermentation, manure management,
coal mining, municipal solid waste, waste water, biomass burning, oil and natural gas exploration,flaring and transport. Thailand had taken a technology-intensive approach with a focus on
methane production and optimization. Anaerobic digestion is a process involving the breakdownof organic matter by micro-organism, in absence of oxygen. Anaerobic digestion is currently inwidespread use on farms around the world. Udonthani province has a lot of waste from farm suchas agri-residues, livestock waste and household waste. The project aims to find the technology offermentation to develop high rate anaerobic methane fermentor for organic waste water fromagri-residues, livestock waste and household waste which is suitable for sustainable andutilization of waste in Udonthani province, and suggest that methane recovery also helps toreduce the emission of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

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2. Methodology
2.1 Study site
1. Udonthani province is located on the northeastern plateau of Thailand which is about 187

meters above sea level, covers an area of 11,730.3 km2 (1,173,030.2 ha). It consists of rice
fields, forests and hills. Most of the land is sandy and stony, soils is salty in some areas.
Population density is 1,523,942 persons in 2006 (Administration of Udonthani Province,
2007 http://www.udonthani.go.th/).

Source: http://www.udonthani.com.

Fig. 1 Map and Location of Udonthani province

2.2 Investigation
2.2.1 Effect on sugarcane burning and utilization of cane residues
In order to gather background information on sugarcane cropping and sugarcane burninginterviews based on a questionnaire were carried out in 18 districts and 2 sub-districts ofUdonthani, in 2006. We will consider both the total air environmental in Udonthani and thesocio-economic situational changes over a certain period in 7 years, the amount of air pollution
from burning at atmosphere and the model of air pollutants flow balance model focus on the total,
the energy balance model. The other factors which related in this topic will be takes from theliterature, we suggest these model to apply for using in other cropping or residues burning.

2.2.2 High productivity of methane fermentation from agro-product waste andhousehold waste(Under doing the research and experiment)

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3. Results
3.1 Effect on sugarcane burning and utilization of cane residues

(A)

(B)
Source: http://www.ocsb.go.th/

Fig. 2 Map of sugarcane cropping area in 2005/2006 Northeast (A), Udonthani province (B)Sugarcane cropping area of Northeast is 43% of total in Thailand. Udonthani province hassugarcane cropping area is 20% 0f total in Northeast (Fig. 3).The total of sugarcane production inEast
6%

PJSK Phen TPPBR
0%0%
0% 0%
KK
2% BD NHNYNSom
2% 2%1%3%M uang
SKWM
NSW4%0%
21%
3%

North
19%

KJ
4%
BP
5%

Northeast
43%

ST
16%

CW
6%

Central
32%

NSang
7%

KP
10%

NS
14%

(A)

(B)

Fig. 3 Percentage of sugarcane cropping area in Thailand (A), in Udonthani province (B).

7 years is 404,995,899.631 tons(fresh cane 185,513,591.526 tons and burnt cane 219,482,308.186
tons, Fig. 4A). The amount of burnt cane is higher than fresh cane twice (Fig. 5A), these data issimilar to cane production of Udonthani (Fig. 4B), but the quantity of burnt cane is higher thanfresh cane three times (Fig. 5B). Since November, 2006 it was gather background information on
sugarcane cropping and cane burning interviews based on a questionnaire were carried out inonly 2 districts where are have a lot of sugarcane cropping area, such as Wangsammau district
and Srithat district. It was found that 95% of local farmer burning cane during pre-harvest andonly 5% un-burning in Wangsammau district. Srithat district has only 43% of cane burning and
57% of un-burning cane (Fig. 6). Both of two districts had the same percentage of cane burningand un-burning, before harvesting and cane residues (69% burning, 31% un-burning byrespectively (Fig. 9)).

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tons
80000000

tons
7000000

70000000

6000000

60000000

5000000

50000000
40000000
30000000

Burnt Cane

4000000

Burnt CaneFresh Cane

3000000

Fresh Cane

20000000

2000000

10000000

1000000

00

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007///////
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007///////
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

(A)

(B)

Fig. 4 Quantity of sugarcane production of Thailand (A), Udonthani province (B) in 7 years.
Fresh CaneFresh CaneBurnt Cane

Burnt Cane

28%
46%

54%
72%(A)(B)

Fig. 5 Percentage of fresh cane and burnt cane production of Thailand (A), Udonthani (B) in 7 years

100 %
80 %
60 %

Burn

40 %

Un-burn

20 %0%Wangsammau

SrithatFig. 6 Percentage of cane burning and un-burning of local farmer in Wangsammau and Srithat.

Cane residues

Pre-harvest

31%

31%

Un-burnUn-burn

Burn

Burn

69%

69%

(A)
Fig. 9 Percentage of sugarcane burning and un-burning during pre-harvest (A) and percentageof cane residues burning and un-burning at farm by local farmer in both districts (B).

(B)

64. Discussion and Conclusion
There are approximately 107,000 small holders who grow sugarcane in Thailand.
Therefore it has a lot of sugarcane residues in farm. It was found that 50% of the cane trash canbe removed without any negative effect on field productivity (Muhammad, 1995). Thailand’ssugarcane and sugar production during the past 3 years has decreased continually as the country
has experienced unfavorable weather conditions and sugarcane growers have switched to othercrops such as cassava, palm oil and rubber trees plantation, which offer more income. In 2007,
cultivation of sugarcane is increasing, because of 3 plantations could not grow in some area.
Percentage of farmers without high-powered tractors in Wangsammau was merely 90% and in
Srithat was 40% of those interviewed. The farmers who did not have any high-power tractor said,at harvesting time, most farmers burn their fields before or after harvesting cane. The purpose ofburning is to make man-powered harvesting easier and to avoid the damage on rationing by field
fires. In addition, small-scale farmer seem unconcerned about soil degradation because they
depend on others through the implementation of culture practices. However, the amount of caneburnt is higher than fresh cane at the present year. It was confirmed that local farmer is stillburning cane and cane residues. Although, Thai government has a policy to control andencourages the farmer to stop cane burning such as, to fix the price of fresh cane must be higher
than burnt cane and promote the knowledge about the disadvantage of cane or crop-residues
burning to local farmer. In the next step, we will consider both the total air environmental in
Udonthani province and the socio-economic situational changes over a certain period in 7 years.
The model of air pollutants flow balance model focus on the total, the energy balance model. The
other factors which related in this topic will be takes from the literature. We suggest these model
can use for other case study in utilization of bio-resources.
5. References
1. http://www.alternate-energy-sources.com/
2. http://www.oscb.go.th/
3. http://www.seps.sk/zp/fond/fae.htm/4. http://www. udonthani.com/
5. http://www.udonthani.go.th/
6. Muhammad Gabra, 1995. Renewable Energy for Development August. Vol. 8, No. 2.